Conventional luminaires are typically designed with fixed output characteristics and dedicated functionality. For example, a spotlight luminaire is manufactured for a singular purpose to direct a narrow beam of light into a room and/or onto an object with a particular performance and light output characteristics. These luminaires are specifically constructed to achieve maximum efficiency given their dedicated functionality and purpose. As a result, a large number of lighting products are provided by manufacturers to cater to these various installation and application requirements. Such a large volume of products and variant units leads to higher costs in manufacturing, storage and overhead.
Another issue with conventional light fixtures is the improper installation of some luminaires into environments in which they were not intended. For example, some luminaires intended for wall washing or sconce-type lighting may be incorrectly installed in a configuration wherein the light output is not efficiently utilized for illumination of the room. Such installation wastes energy while also incorrectly and inefficiently illuminating a desired area. These luminaires, while configurable at the manufacturing location, typically cannot inherently correct their light output after installation based on environmental criteria.
As another example, many luminaires have alterable output characteristics, such as intensity or color control. In such installations, users must have access to the luminaire or have access to controls (i.e. through software or hardware such as switches) which modifies the light output based upon direct user input. In these situations as well, a user control interface must be integrated within the control systems of the luminaire or remote control interface. Unfortunately, light output is defined by how the luminaire is mounted and oriented relative to the ceiling or other structures. As a result, fixed output construct of luminaires or light fixtures are not readily transferrable from a first install orientation to a second non-related install orientation.
Thus, conventional dedicated luminaires suffer from one or more drawbacks and there is a need in the art to provide a lighting unit capable of being automatically reconfigured based upon detected values, such as lighting unit orientation, distance to other surfaces such as ceilings, walls, working surfaces, illumination surfaces and the like and lighting conditions, all of which may be optionally used to overcome one or more drawbacks of existing approaches.